¹⁸But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have builded! =18.= _dwell with men_] The words, _with men_, are absent from the Hebrew text of 1 Kings, but appear in LXX. (A and B). Their presence helps to spiritualize the idea of God “dwelling on the earth.” The Peshitṭa (the Syriac translation of the Bible) still further limits the sense and translates: _cause his Shekinah to dwell with_ (al. _rest upon_) _his people Israel_. ¹⁹Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee: =19.= _prayer ... and ... supplication_] “Supplication” as distinguished from “prayer” is _prayer for favour_. ²⁰that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place. =20.= _which thy servant shall pray_] Solomon refers in this verse to future prayers, not (as in verse 19) to the prayer he is now praying. ²¹And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yea, hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive. =21.= _from thy dwelling place, even from heaven_] Here, as in verse 18, Solomon refuses to regard the Temple as Jehovah’s “dwelling place.” Compare ii. 6. ²²If a man sin¹ against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and he come _and_ swear before thine altar in this house: ²³then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. ¹ Or, _Whereinsoever a man shall sin_. =22.= _and an oath be laid upon him_] Compare Exodus xxii. 11. When an accused man attests his innocence before the altar of the Temple either by invoking on himself a curse (the _oath of ordeal_) or by allowing the priest to invoke one upon him, then may Jehovah judge the matter, allowing the innocent to escape unharmed from the ordeal, and fulfilling the curse against the guilty!